His father is a painter and is the only member of his immediate family to have made it out of a Nazi camp.

For Game of Thrones, Podeswa was initially announced as having been hired as a director for Season 2, but later lists did not show him as working on the series. When HBO confirmed the line-up of directors for the show, Podeswa was not present. It was later revealed that the original director for the episode "Blackwater" had pulled out of the production and Neil Marshall was brought in as a replacement[1]. It has been speculated that Podeswa may have been the original director for that episode, but not confirmed.